Estrogen and Neural Plasticity

Converging clinical evidence suggests that postmenopausal estrogen therapy in women is associated with improved cognition and a reduced incidence of Alzheimer's disease. In experimental work, investigators have found estrogen to promote changes in synaptic plasticity within the nervous system. In this article, we review both the clinical and the experimental literature, and consider mechanisms of action of estrogen on neurons and synaptic plasticity, and how they might protect against the cognitive impairments of old age.     

Counseling Adult Sex Offenders: Unique Challenges and Treatment Paradigms

Current definitions and research literature related to characteristics of adults who sexually victimize children are reviewed. Treatment issues that may confront counselors engaged in treating adults who sexually victimize children are examined, and implications for practitioners are discussed.     

Neural Plasticity and Human Development

In this article, I argue that experience-induced changes in the brain may be a useful way of viewing the course of human development. Work from the neurosciences supports the claim that most of the behavioral phenomena of interest to psychologists (e.g., cognition, perception, language, emotion) are instantiated by the process of neural plasticity. When development is viewed in this manner, the fallaciousness of the long-standing and often contentious debate over nature versus nurture becomes apparent. Moreover, by utilizing theneuroscientific tools used to examine the effects of experience on brain and behavioral development (e.g., functional neuroimaging), we may improve how we conceptualize our notions of intervention, competence, and resilience.     

从神经可塑性的视角看压力与疾病的关系

压力致病是一个复杂的过程,涉及到与多种致病因素的相互作用、多个器官系统的激活和反馈、不同发育阶段对疾病的易感性等。这个过程中,神经可塑性起着重要的调节作用。本文以神经可塑性为切入点,阐述了压力、发育阶段、个人发展、疾病发生之间的关系。     

从神经可塑性的视角看压力与疾病的关系

压力致病是一个复杂的过程,涉及到与多种致病因素的相互作用、多个器官系统的激活和反馈、不同发育阶段对疾病的易感性等.这个过程中,神经可塑性起着重要的调节作用.本文以神经可塑性为切入点,阐述了压力、发育阶段、个人发展、疾病发生之间的关系.     

Caught Between Two Worlds:

No abstract available for this article.     

心理治疗两种范式的对立及其整合

心理治疗有两种不同的范式:科学主义治疗范式和人文主义治疗范式。前者主要由行为疗法和认知—行为疗法的诸种治疗形式所构成;后者则包括当事人中心疗法、存在疗法等。两种范式在人性观、心理诊断、治疗关系、治疗方法和治疗目的等方面存在着明显的对立。对此进行分析,并提出两者整合的构思,以期裨益于心理治疗实践。     

心理治疗两种范式的对立及其整合

心理治疗有两种不同的范式:科学主义治疗范式和人文主义治疗范式.前者主要由行为疗法和认知-行为疗法的诸种治疗形式所构成;后者则包括当事人中心疗法、存在疗法等.两种范式在人性观、心理诊断、治疗关系、治疗方法和治疗目的等方面存在着明显的对立.对此进行分析,并提出两者整合的构思,以期裨益于心理治疗实践.     

Forgivingness: Similarities and Differences Between Buddhists and Christians Living in China

Mourners often rely on faith following loss, but not all find spirituality comforting. Some grievers engage in negative religious coping (NRC), signaled by behaviors and thoughts such as anger toward God or their faith community, feeling spiritually abandoned, or questioning God's power. Our longitudinal study of 46 African American homicide survivors explored the relation of both positive religious coping (PRC) and NRC to complicated grief (CG) and investigated whether religious coping more strongly predicted psychological distress or vice versa. Results indicated that NRC was associated with CG, whereas PRC was substantially unrelated to bereavement outcome. Significantly, CG prospectively predicted high levels of spiritual struggle 6 months later, both in terms of CG and NRC composite scores and at the individual-item level. Clinical implications regarding spiritually sensitive interventions are noted.     

Homicide-Suicides Between Adult Sexual Intimates: An Australian Study

Little research that focuses upon homicide-suicides between adult sexual intimates has been conducted to date. Yet U.S., U.K., and Australian studies on homicide and homicide-suicide show that a disproportionate number of those that kill and subsequently take their own lives are the husbands or estranged sexual intimates of their victims. This paper provides some retrospective data on the historical, demographic, and situational traits of this type of homicide-suicide in Australia by looking at what, if anything, differentiates homicides between adult sexual intimates that include the suicide of the offender from those that do not. A lack of significant variation was apparent in histories of domestic violence, alcohol involvement, and unemployment between those who committed suicide and those who did not. However, if the offender was a male estranged from his partner, born outside of Australia, who used a gun as the weapon and killed more than one victim, or was older with an ailing wife, he was more apt to commit suicide. Using anecdotal case study material, causation or explanatory variables are also discussed. These appeared to cluster either around a theme of old age and ill-health or control and pathological-type of possessiveness. The author concludes that more research focusing on the differentiation between the two groups of offenders is necessary in order to better identify contributory variables and to develop risk elements and information for criminal justice practitioners and other service providers.     

Similarities and Differences Between Younger and Older Suicidal People

More younger people attempt and more older people commit suicide, but the bulk of research and treatment activities, presumably by younger professionals, is devoted to the younger suicidal population. In this paper, both younger and older suicidal patients were compared for age differences, age similarities, and the relationships between generations. Examples are presented of the precipitants and family determinants that were most frequently associated with suicidal behavior, with a discussion of their theoretical and clinical implications. The precipitants were based upon developmental tasks and crises which differ with age, while the family determinants were similar at all ages. Families also played a major role in the origin, outcome, and healing of a suicidal state. To a great extent, the steps leading to a self-destructive episode occurred outside of awareness. The examples illustrated both the typical and the unusual experiences that take place during the treatment of suicidal individuals, often involving the therapist in emotional, dramatic, and moving situations.     

成体干细胞可塑性研究中的若干哲学思考

随着干细胞生物学研究的不断深入,成体干细胞被发现可以分化成组织来源与其无关的其他系统的细胞,即成体干细胞的可塑性.但是最近不断有学者对其提出质疑,认为可塑性可能是与细胞融合或成年组织中的多潜能成年祖细胞有关.面对可塑性上两种截然相反的观点,我们在热切关注其研究进展的同时,也引发了一连串的哲学思考.     

Gender Related Naming Practices: Similarities and Differences Between People and their Dogs

We compared final written letters and spoken phonemes and syllable length in the names of male (N = 250) and female (N = 197) Golden Retrievers to determine if the same gender-stereotyping trends occurring in humans also appeared in dog names. Names were taken from a website of the most popular Golden Retriever names in English speaking countries. Both male and female dogs had names ending in letters and phonemes characteristic of their respective human male and female counterparts. Female dogs had more syllables in their names than male dogs and a higher percentage of male dogs had one syllable names. We conclude that the similarities between human and dog naming practices reflect a pervasive gendered naming phonology.     

Neural resonance: Between implicit simulation and social perception

Shaun Gallagher and Dan Zahavi have recently argued against a simulationist interpretation of neural resonance. Recognizing intentions and emotions in the facial expressions and gestures of others may be subserved by e.g. mirror neuron activity, but this does not mean that we first experience an intention or emotion and then project it onto the other. Mirror neurons subserve social cognition, according to Gallagher and Zahavi, by being integral parts of processes of enactive social perception. I argue that the notion of enactive social perception does not yet explain why social perception is subserved by mirroring. I also argue that this problem cannot be avoided by means of an appeal to multiple realization. Instead, I propose a holistic model of neural resonance-based social cognition that does give an explanatory role to mirroring by allowing for a partial experiential overlap between experiencing and recognizing emotions and intentions. This account avoids the simulationist step-wise conception of social cognition and recognizes the qualitative difference between first- and third-person emotion and intention attribution. It does capture too much of the simulationist intuitions, however, to warrant the label ‘social perception’.     

Interactions between Depression and Facilitation within Neural Networks: Updating the Dual-Process Theory of Plasticity

Repetitive stimulation often results in habituation of the elicited response. However, if the stimulus is sufficiently strong, habituation may be preceded by transient sensitization or even replaced by enduring sensitization. In 1970, Groves and Thompson formulated the dual-process theory of plasticity to explain these characteristic behavioral changes on the basis of competition between decremental plasticity (depression) and incremental plasticity (facilitation) occurring within the neural network. Data from both vertebrate and invertebrate systems are reviewed and indicate that the effects of depression and facilitation are not exclusively additive but, rather, that those processes interact in a complex manner. Serial ordering of induction of learning, in which a depressing locus precedes the modulatory system responsible for inducing facilitation, causes the facilitation to wane. The parallel and/or serial expression of depression and waning facilitation within the stimulus–response pathway culminates in the behavioral changes that characterize dual-process learning. A mathematical model is presented to formally express and extend understanding of the interactions between depression and facilitation.     

Leader Member Exchanges: Distinction Between Two Factors

Abstract

The dimensionality of Graen's Leader Member Exchange concept was examined in a cross-sectional questionnaire study among 1147 Dutch nurses. The total sample was divided into two subgroups by means of stratified random selection (n1 = 574; n2 = 573) and analyses were performed in each subgroup separately. The factorial structure of a 12-item self-report Leader Member Exchange questionnaire was examined. Exploratory factor analysis on the data of subgroup 1 yielded two factors, which were labelled “consideration/coaching by the leader” and “filling an assistant position”. Confirmatory factor analyses with LISREL showed that a two-factor oblique model had the best fit in both subgroups. Equality of factor structures in both subgroups was clearly demonstrated. Differential validity of the two Leader Member Exchange factors was studied by correlating each factor with measures of job-related affect. In both subgroups, the consideration/coaching factor had a significantly stronger, positive relationship with job satisfaction and a significantly stronger, negative relationship with propensity to quit the job, whereas the assistant position factor had a significantly stronger, positive relationship with job-responsibility. Results concerning the relationships with effectiveness ratings were inconclusive. The results of this study indicate that the Leader Member Exchange concept is two-dimensional rather than unidimensional.     

Between Two Worlds: Counseling South Asian Americans

This article examines some of the mental health issues associated with counseling South Asian immigrants in the United States. A profile of the South Asian family is developed. Its structure and values are examined in relation to those of the American counseling community.